It is oftentimes desired and sometimes necessary that wood be bundled into convenient small packages to facilitate conveying or transporting the package as well as making storage more convenient and enhancing safety where a considerable amount of wood must be stored. This is particularly true, for example, where firewood is concerned since such wood must normally be transferred, often to a variety of relatively small users, and stored by such users until needed.
While it has been common to cut and then store wood for ultimate use in wood-burning fireplaces, such storage has more often been accomplished by loosely stacking the wood, often by the cord, in some selected location and then transporting the same, sometimes piece by piece, to the burning area. This has not, however, proved to be convenient in many cases, and in some cases, inconvenient to the point of making a wood-burning fireplace impractical.
It is therefore been suggested that wood, such as kindling wood or other such small pieces, could be bundled. In these prior art suggestions, however, the type of wood bundled was relatively small and/or the device utilized was entirely mechanical. Examples of wood bundling devices of this type are shown, for example, in U.S. Letters Pat. Nos. 28,753 (Hobe), 66,254 (Richardson et al), 138,027 (House), 332,155 (Kingston), 369,603 (Kingston), 586,944 (Ball) and 1,985,462 (Schapiro).
It has also been suggested that compression and/or bundling systems could be utilized in other areas, such as, for example, bailing presses, clampers, or other compression devices (see, for example, U.S. Letters Pat. Nos. 204,741 (Jones), 262,611 (Nichols et al), 3,400652 (Hill et al), 3,496,862 (Sowerby) and 3,613,567 (Loughran)). However, such devices are not suggested for use in connection with wood bundling and/or do not suggest bundling systems that include such features as electro-pneumatic control members.
Heretofore, small firewood bundles have been attempted and/or utilized, but such bundling has not proved to be entirely suitable for providing a bundle of firewood that has a single strap securely and tightly fastening the bundle for conveying and/or storing the same.